McGraw Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 25, 1954

108 N.L.R.B. 1033 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

LINE MATERIAL COMPANY 1033
If a majority of the employees in the voting group vote for
the Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their
desire to constitute a separate appropriate unit , and the
Regional Director conducting the election directed herein is
instructed to issue a certificate of representatives to the Pe-
titioner for the unit described in the voting group above, which
the Board , under such circumstances , finds to be appropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining . On the other hand, if
a majority vote for the Intervenor , the Boardfinds the existing
unit to be appropriate and the Regional Director will issue a
certification of results of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
LINE MATERIAL COMPANY, DIVISION OF McGRAW ELEC-
TRIC COMPANY and TOOL & DIE MAKERS LODGE NO. 78,
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL,
Petitioner . Case No . 13-RC-3764. May 25, 1954
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Jewel G . Maher,
hearing officer. The hearing officer ' s rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. t
Upon the entire record in this case , the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent
certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of employees of the Employer within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and ( 7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to sever from the existing production
and maintenance unit, a unit of all of the Employer's tool-
and die-makers and model shop employees, including the heat
treater, the tool and cutter grinder, and the tool crib attendant,
but excluding all other employees. The Employer and Intervenor
contend that the requested unit is inappropriate because of the
history of collective bargaining on a plantwide basis and the
integration of the Employer ' s operations . The Intervenor further
contends that the employees in the requested unit are not skilled
craftsmen . Since 1937 , the Intervenor has been the bargaining
representative for all production and maintenance employees
in a single unit.
'Local 1109, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), herein
called the Intervenor, was permitted to intervene on the basis of a recently expired contract.
108 NLRB No. 139.
1034 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
There are approximately 400 production and maintenance
employees working at the plant. The Employer' s operations are
carried on in 3 divisions, the manufacturing division, which in-
cludes the toolroom, the engineering division, which includes
the model shop, and the marketing division, which includes the
packing, shipping, receiving, and stock departments. The manu-
facturing and marketing divisions are under the supervision of
a plant manager . The engineering division is under the super-
vision of a vice president in charge of engineering . Directly
responsible to the plant manager is a manufacturing super-
intendent who has jurisdiction over all phases of manufacturing,
including the toolroom and all maintenance work connected with
the production departments. He has no jurisdiction over the
model shop.
The Employer's operations are carried on in several different
buildings. The toolroom is located in a building which houses the
Employer's production departments, but is physically separated
from the production departments. The tool crib is enclosed by
wire in one corner of the toolroom. It has two openings, one of
which faces the production departments. The heat treat room
is separated from the toolroom by a 4- foot wall. The model
shop is located in another building which houses the engineer-
ing department.
Toolroom employees: There are 20 employees who work
under the separate supervision of the toolroom foreman, who
reports to the manufacturing superintendent. Of these em-
ployees, 17 are tool- and die-makers who are classified as tool-
and die-maker A, B, and C. There is also a tool and cutter
grinder, a tool crib attendant, and a heat treater who work
under toolroom supervision.
The tool- and die-makers spend from 90 to 95 percent of their
time making new tools, dies, gauges , jigs, and fixtures. The
remainder of their time is devoted to maintaining or repairing
tools and dies. The majority of their work is done within the
confines of the toolroom. They work from blueprints, and con-
struct the tools and dies to completion. They sometimes design
parts they are going to make. Their work requires them to
work to close tolerances . They use all of the tools and machines
located in the toolroom including shapers, lathes, horizontal
and vertical milling machines, a horizontal the miller, surface
grinders, contour saws, filling machines, band filers, and die
filers. Some of the tool- and die-makers also own their own
hand tools which they use in connection with their work in the
toolroom.
The tool- and die-makers go into production departments to
check the dies that they make, to see that they are functioning
properly. At such times they may work near other maintenance
employees, but each works at his own particular trade. The
tool- anddie -makers do not make anything on a production basis,
and do not do any production work. Nor, with the exception of
one employee, do any production employees do the work of the
LINE MATERIAL COMPANY 1035
tool- and die-makers. When the tool- and die-makers are all
tied up with rush jobs, this one employee, a lathe and shaper
man, sometimes makes simple fixtures . Not more than 5 to 10
percent of his time is spent on this toolroom work.
In connection with the Employer's quality control program,
dies made in the toolroom are turned over to the inspection de-
partment for check and inspection. They are then turned over
to the punch press department , and there they are inspected
again. If the piece parts are not correct , they are turned over
to the department foreman, who refers them back to the tool-
room foreman, who takes it up with the tool- and die-maker
responsible . Occasionally , various production employees use
machines in the toolroom which are not available in the pro-
duction departments, such as band saws, lathes, and the radial
drill press. The radial drill press, which is not an intricate
machine, is the only one in the plant, and is seldom used by the
toolroom employees . While working on these machines in the
toolroom, the production employees remain under the super-
vision of their own foreman.
The tool and cutter grinder and the tool-crib attendant both
work in the tool crib. The tool-crib attendant serves the entire
plant. When he is not busy handing out tools and supplies to
employees, he cuts cold rolled steel and tool steel which is
used by the toolmakers, the model shop, and by production em-
ployees. The tool and cutter grinder grinds all the cutters and
die chasers. He grinds tools for production and maintenance
employees as well as for the toolroom. He also waits on the
window when the tool-crib attendant is too busy to handle all
the work.
There are 2 heat treaters employed at the plant, 1 in the
foundry and 1 in the heat treat room near the toolroom. The
foundry heat treater works only on production items, whereas
the employee in the heat treat room spends about 80 to 90 per-
cent of his time heat treating toolroom items, and the remainder
of his time production items. The latter operates the heat treat
furnaces for the purpose of heat treating tools and dies. He is
not required to have experience as atoolmaker, and does not do
any of the work of the tool- and die-makers.
Model-shop employees: There are 7 modelmakers who work
under the separate supervision of a model-shop foreman, who
is responsible to the research engineer , who, in turn , reports
to the vice president in charge of engineering . All the model-
makers are classified as modelmaker B.
The modelmakers build models of products to be manufactured
by the Employer from blueprints and stretches. The models are
made according to engineering specifications from different
kinds of metal, depending upon what the specifications call for.
Occasionally they make wood models. They make all the tools
which they use to build the models. About 90 percent of their
work is done in the model shop. They do not work in the pro-
duction departments, but sometimes turn over to production
1036 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees certain functions which cannot be done in the model
shop because of a lack of facilities . This includes models which
are too large to be completed in the model shop , and models
which require welding.
At present , the Employer has no formal apprenticeship pro-
gram for any of the employees involved in this case .2 It fills
vacancies by hiring from the outside, or by transferring quali-
fied employees from production and maintenance departments.
Transfers to the toolroom or model shop are made on the basis
of ability and seniority . The Employer gives most weight to
ability. The record indicates that employees are not transferred
directly from production and maintenance departments into the
toolroom, but must complete an on-the-job training program
before such a transfer is made . The line of promotion is from
tool- and die -maker C to B to A . Employees are promoted on
the basis of ability and the amount of work that is available in
the classification . The record does not show whether employees
must pass a test before being promoted to a higher classifica-
tion or transferred into the toolroom or model shop.
Toolroom and model-shop employees are never temporarily
assigned to work in other departments . There is no interchange
of work between the toolroom and model shop , and the two
groups have little contact with each other . 3 Toolroom em-
ployees work the same hours as the production and maintenance
employees , from 7 a . m. to 3:30 p . m. Modelmakers work the
same hours as other employees in the engineering department,
from 8 a . m. to 4:30 p. m . Both modelmakers and toolroom
employees are hourly paid, as are approximately 50 percent of
the Employer ' s production and maintenance employees. The
other production and maintenance employees work on a piece-
rate basis , or a combination of an hourly rate and a piecework
rate. All production and maintenance employees receive the
same vacation and sick-leave benefits . Under the present con-
tract with the Intervenor , seniority is on a departmental basis
for employees who have worked for the Employer for less than
3 years. Seniority for employees who have worked for the Em-
ployer for 4 years or more is determined on a plantwide basis.
The Petitioner contends , and we agree, that the tool- and die-
makers and the modelmakers here comprise a traditional craft
group, performing distinctive and typical craft tasks . The Board
has heretofore found that tool - and die-makers and modelmakers
are craftsmen of substantially the same type , and has found ap-
propriate for severance purposes a unit of such employees.4
Moreover , the Petitioner herein is a union which has tradition-
ally devoted itself to serving the special interests of the em-
ployees in question . Under these circumstances , we find that the
tool - and die - makers and modelmakers may constitute a sepa-
2 The record indicates that in the past the Employer had an apprentices , ip program for
tool- and die-makers.
3 model-shop employees sometimes go to the toolroom to use a machine which is located in
the toolroom and is not available in the n codel shop.
4Ceneral Electric Company , 101 NLRB 1341.
STAUFFER CHEMICAL COMPANY 1037
rate appropriate unit, if the employees so desire, despite the
history of collective bargaining on a broader basis.' We will,
however, exclude the heat treater, the tool and cutter grinder,
and the tool-crib attendant from the unit, as they are not crafts-
men and are not in direct line of progression in the craft.6
Accordingly, we shall direct an election among all of the
tool- and die -makers and modelmakers employed by the Em-
ployer at its Central Plant, in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
excluding the heat treater , the tool and cutter grinder, the tool-
crib attendant , supervisors , and all other employees.
If a majority vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken to
have indicated their desire to constitute a separate unit, which
the Board finds, under the circumstances , to be appropriate
for purposes of collective bargaining , and the Regional Director
is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to the
Petitioner for such unit . If a majority vote for the Intervenor,
they will be taken to have indicated their desire to remain a
part of the existing appropriate plantwide unit, and the Regional
Director is instructed to issue a certification of results of
election to that effect.
[ Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
5But for the fact that he considers himself bound by the Board's decision in American
Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418, Member Peterson would not sever these
employees in view of their inclusion for 17 years in the broader unit, and the absence of any
facts showing the need for their severance.
6American Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418; General Electric Company,
101 NLRB 1341.
STAUFFER CHEMICAL COMPANY and LODGE 681, DISTRICT
27, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, AFL'
and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF FIREMEN &
OILERS, AFL2 and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
FIREMEN & OILERS, LOCAL #320, AFL and PIPE FITTERS
LOCAL UNION NO. 522, UNITED ASSOCIATION OF JOUR-
NEYMEN AND APPRENTICES OF THE PLUMBING AND
PIPE FITTING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES AND
CANADA, AFL,' Petitioners. Cases Nos. 9-RC-2147,9-RC-
2158, 9-RC-2182, and 9-RC-2164. May 25, 1954
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, hearings were held before Thomas M.
Sheeran, hearing officer . The hearing officer's rulings made at
'therein called LAM.
2Herein called Oilers.
3Herein called Pipe Fitters.
108 NLRB No. 145.